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Dear Ellen,

The last few weeks have been a blur — podcast recording, podcast editing, wedding organizing, wedding supply buying, wedding contract verifying…and on and on.  Nonetheless, I did finish a few knits and managed to fit in some recreation as well.

First off my needles was my Hiya, Brooke! shawl, the Hyla Brook pattern by Paula Emons-Fuessle.  I made the two sides mirror-image vice as in the pattern, so I was changing gears at the spine on each lace row.  The pattern (which is just lovely and a very fun, fast knit by the way) doesn’t do the mirror image.  If you start a lace row with “YO, K2tog”, then you continue from the spine with the same “YO, K2tog”.  That means that as you go out from the spine on one side you have your eyelet a stitch away from the spine whereas on the other side the eyelet is right next to the spine.  This really isn’t noticeable to the casual observer.  But I’m all about the symmetry, so I made sure that each time I hit the spine I reversed the order of the YO’s and the K2tog’s.   I like the result.

I also moved the closure that was bothering me on Fooling Around, the Devonshire pattern by Pam Powers, and have blocked out the additional bit of lace that is knit after piecing the sweater together.   (This is just the continuation of the front edging around the back of the collar.)  The geometry of this sweater makes it very easy to wear.  The collar lies neatly against your upper back and neck and with the closure in the right place (an scant half inch above the apex of the bustline) it hangs without a perceived need to keep pulling it closed.  I’ve had that problem with other single closure sweaters.  And I need a sweater I can keep open — especially when my own personal summers decide to kick in!  You’ll see this sweater at Rhinebeck for sure — it’s very, very light, but just perfectly cozy warm.  I think it’s the possum in the Kauri yarn.  I bought this yarn while on a work trip to New Zealand — with this pattern in mind.  Take note — perhaps the first time I’ve bought yarn for a specific pattern, put it in my stash and then years later actually knit that pattern.  Until now it has only been when casting on immediately that I have been true to my yarn/pattern matchings.

Our playtime was mostly at the West Lampeter Agricultural Fair.  It also was another opportunity for gratuitous ego boosting as I entered seven knitted items and came home with seven ribbons (and also a ribbon for my dilly garlic squash pickles at the SOLANCO Fair!).  I mentioned on the podcast that I won first prize for three — all designs of my own.  I need to get busy on publishing those!  Dale enjoyed riding the practice roping calf.   We both enjoyed watching the ducklings at play (<= video link!) on the water-slide set up by Rohrer Seed Company.  I wanted to take some ducklings home, you would have too.

The fairs both had many adorable goats and Dale is on the verge of readiness for goat acquisition.  One of the farmers assured him that goats will do just fine with only a run-in shelter in our climate.  So, after the wedding we’ve got fencing going in and we’ll be looking for some pygmies…preferably pygmy angoras, but we’re not averse to having a mix.  Dale spotted this guy trying to drive his owner’s tractor — the thought that they could be trained to help with plowing, etc., may have been what clinched his decision that we should move forward.

The next week will be fully focused on wedding preparations.  Lots yet to do, including the seating chart.  With some of our guests, the results of our decision making could be interesting!

Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

I’m sure you know that the Minnesota State Fair is the answer to the question above.

The crop art was outstanding this year.  Not only are the sentiments expressed in the senior division winner*, “November”, fully resonant with my views,…

…but the detail, all executed in seeds, resonates with my love of precision work.

And the art of brewing resonates, too!  New this year in the Ag Building, flights of local craft beers.  Wilson drank the sweet ones, I drank the hoppy ones, and we both enjoyed it very much.

Part of the art of sculpting a bust of one of our galaxy of Princesses Kay of the Milky Way (the title is shared by about a dozen young dairy farmers), is keeping your model from having a literally frozen smile.  It doesn’t live up to my butter sculpture expectations, nor yours, I’m sure.  The annual butter cow at the Ohio State Fair is higher on my list, topped only by the one time appearance of the butter computer programmer.

I hope I have feigned enough interest in non-woolen aspects of the fair to be polite.  Let’s get on to why we are really here.

First, a banner year for firsts for me! I received 3 first place ribbons, one each for my Greek Swan and  Kai It, You’ll Like It socks…

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and one for my fingering weight yarn spun out of bison down.

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My apologies for the photos through glass.  I couldn’t help myself showing the full skein of yarn as it is my first ever spinning ribbon.  The yarn is a 2-ply spun from 50 g of bison down in a semi-woolen method.  It is yummy soft - I suspect that once the judge touched it s/he was under its spell and any spinning defects were not noticed.

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I did win 5 other ribbons - my handspun sweater, two more pairs of socks (big for me - previously my socks weren’t even good enough to judge!), my beaded wristers, and the Gima sweater all placed.  I believe I cover every place from 1st to 5th this year. 

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Returning to the wooly pursuits, Wilson was a good sport and let me linger in the sheep barn where we saw Columbias and Lincoln Longwools and some other curly, oh, wait, that was in the pigeon barn.  We learned that they now are breeding pigeons to look like miniature sheep.  I believe that is what the breed standard says -  “feather structure similar to the lock structure of a Romney lamb”.

Perhaps that isn’t 100% accurate, but I am 100% sure that this would be a stunning colorway.  Look at that teal around her neck, combined with the black and grey curls.

And in the next cage, another great combination of color.

And yet another colorway with eyes - this tan bunny whose ears glow so sweetly rosy behind the elegant two tone fur.  Erica, I hope you are taking notes.

After visiting the bunnies, we headed on home to plan for next year’s entries.

I’ll share another animal inspired yarn in a natural colorway in my next post. Until then, Happy Labor Day!

Love,

Ellen

*Laura Melnick’s comment on the upcoming state constitution amendments.  Two amendments - one against gay marriage and one that would change all sorts of voting procedures, all making it harder for legitimate voters to vote and none of which have any evidence that they are needed to decrease fraud.  Fraud which is nearly non-existent in MN.  So, thanks, Laura, for the humorous support for No votes on both!

Dear Ellen,

It seems the last six weeks went by so quickly — maybe because so much of it was spent sleeping.  No kidding, when we didn’t have something that had to get done (like tend to guests or drive to DC for Navy outprocessing appointments) I slept between 10 and 14 hours a day.  I’ve checked with several other friends who have retired from active duty in recent years and they too found a need to sleep for long stretches for weeks and even months before they finally “woke up” and felt rested. I think one reason is that for our entire military careers we are always on ready alert — that adrenaline is almost non-stop and we go into deep sleep deprivation as a result.  Doesn’t that inspire confidence in your senior military leadership for you?  Good.

I won’t say I feel totally rested yet, but I am a LOT closer!  I actually feel an urge to start tending to things I’ve been meaning to do for weeks.  Things like answering e-mail and writing thank you notes…and yes, even posting on our blog.  Dale is encouraging me to take more time as I start stepping towards reinvention, and I’ll do that, but I am going to start taking some small steps.  This post is one.  I’ll add more in the coming days to try to give a sense of what’s gone on in our lives the last 2 months and the knitting and fiber related activities in which I’ve indulged.  Don’t expect the coverage to be complete or chronological.  Hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining.

Another reason I feel compelled to start posting is that I have to introduce you to the newest seven members of our family.  Only one has a name so far (Pinto — she has the biggest white spots and is in the picture at the top left and also the one to the right of it), but the rest will reveal their personalities in due course.  They love being held and stroked and it is so nice to just watch them scratch about their coop while making contented clucking sounds.  They are about 9 weeks old — will develop their colors more fully with each molt and should start laying sometime in October though some may start earlier.  No rooster, so my sleep should be able to continue uninterrupted.

Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

Wilson thought I was making an art picture - objects arranged in a bizarre still life.

In actuality,  I was making science.  Behold, the Transit of Venus.

Love,

Ellen

P.S.  Now with Bonus Sunspots!

Dear Ellen,

Sorry it has been so long since I’ve posted.  As you know, I’ve been a tad busy.  So, here’s your quick catch up!

All the way back in April (as you obviously know) I had a wonderful, wonderful time visiting your workplace and meeting and speaking so many of your colleagues and co-workers.  So many good memories and ideas from that visit!  The Navy let me hang around for a few more days so I could do some outreach for them — speaking to a number of groups in academia and youth development.  (My favorite was the time I spent with about 60 3rd-8th graders talking about women in technology.  Ten year-olds really keep you on your toes!!) 

It was great that the trip included Yarnover weekend.  Vendors, classes with Chris Bylsma, Mary Scott Huff and Susanna Hansson, and of course, time with you meant for fantastic fun!  (For our readers, no, the picture on the lower left is not one of us.)  I loved the chance to visit StephenBe’s and to enjoy the sensory overload that is his world.

And then, right after I returned to the DC area, I had the chance to take a class with Brenda Dayne of the Cast-On podcast.  She is as lovely as you would expect from her podcast.  I thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to get to know her a bit — witty, smart, funny and engaging.  She’d fit right in to any group that you and I put together, that’s for sure.

The class project was the Mrs. Beeton wristers.  I went against recommendations on my accent yarn choice (purchased at Yarnover!), but I’m very happy with it.  Future versions should include a modification to accomodate the lack of elasticity in the Seduce (rayon, linen, silk and nylon blend).  The minor problem is that without the “sproing” the knitted ruffle works up to a depth that is a bit too long.  It hides the inner ruffle knitted out of the main yarn, a superwash merino sock yarn.  I do love the contrast in texture though…even more so than for the versions of Mrs. Beeton worked with the recommended yarn types.  The simple fix will be to modify the ruffle pattern to lose just a few rows and that will be very easy.

Things are definitely popping up all over the farm these days. That gazebo I mentioned is firmly situated across from the house — bedding plants to come.  And I’ve got fairy ring mushrooms, knock out roses, peas, melons, corn, wildflowers, onions and spinach coming along very nicely!

Our tenants are doing well too.  I thought the chickadee had abandoned her nest in the birdhouse and opened it to make sure.  Surprise!  She was right there.  I quickly snapped a picture and closed it back up.  She didn’t twitch a bit and the next day was still sitting her clutch.  I was relieved I hadn’t frightened her by the rude intrusion.  The eggs above our front windows have hatched (see the tail sticking out?) and the babies are making a mess of things.  (That’s okay, we know how to use a scrub brush.)  And the purple finch who nested in the holly bush just outside our back door has laid a nice little trio of beautiful blue eggs with little black speckles.  I caught this photo while she was out taking advantage of the bird feeders.

I’ve put some time in at the spinning wheel and now have 3 very full bobbins of alpaca/tussah silk singles.  I’ll be doing some trial plying of these to see how I want to finish them.  I’m hoping two-ply will yield a heavy sock weight or light DK. 

The alpaca fleece that I ordered from Morro Fleece Works arrived this past Saturday and it is incredibly lush!  I was so glad I had an extra bobbin at the ready and on Sunday I sat down and spun up about 4 1/2 ounces.  Like buttah!  The roving drafted like an absolute dream — the closest to the zen of spinning that I think I’ve experienced.  It’s a semi-worsted spin with a lot of energy.  I want to test out how a highly spun and highly plied alpaca behaves in a fabric.  I love this color and this fleece so much that I’d really like to use it for the Knitmore SPAKAL, but am smart enough to know I need to figure out the lack of elasticity issue before I knit an entire sweater out of it!  (By the way, I’m seriously considering Mishke by Julie Weisenberger.  Yes, she seems to have both of our attentions!

Before I say goodbye, I want to share the helmet liner I knit for my trusted assistant.  He is heading off to Afghanistan for a year to command an Air Force communications squadron over there.  I wanted him to stay warm, a small token of my appreciation for all the hard work he did for me over the last few years.  He loved it…can you see the smile?  His last day is tomorrow.  We’ll all be sorry to see him go.  Good luck, Mike!

That’s it — next post will be sooner and shorter.  I promise!

Love, Jan